Thursday, September 8th, 2011

Lindsey Stirling is a young and unique hip hop violinist that not only plays fun original music on the fiddle but also finds a way to control her bow while dancing, jumping, and performing impressive gymnastic moves. Besides being a fantastic entertainer Lindsey also strives to help others.

I’ve really enjoyed watching you perform and for me it is obvious that you are on your way to great things. Can you tell us a little about yourself, your age, where you grew up and where you live? I grew up in Gilbert AZ, and I am now a 24 years old college student. I now live in Utah and I am in my senior year at BYU. I am studying to be a recreational therapist and I want to work with troubled teenage girls. I currently work at a residential treatment center helping teenage girls go through recovery and love it. It is such a rewarding job because I get to be a small part of helping someone rediscover the healthy side of themselves. I have found that music and finding passion in life is very helpful for this.

What gave you the idea of combining intensive dance and playing the violin? When I was a senior in high school I did several talent competitions in order to earn money for college and I got sick of being the boring act. Singers would sing upbeat show tunes, dancers would bring the house down with energetic, pop routines and I felt like I put everyone to sleep. I didn’t want to just impress my audience, I wanted them to have fun with me. So I started to write to beats and I began to choreograph my routines. They started extremely simple but as I have practiced… a ton! They’ve evolved.

What came first, dancing or fiddling? I have always loved dance but my parents couldn’t afford both dance lessons and violin lessons. So my mom told me when I was six years old that I had to chose either dance or violin. I chose violin but I think it’s pretty funny that i went ahead and did both… I’ve actually never had a dance lesson. I learned how to moonwalk, and glide and c walk through looking up tutorials on Youtube, and other than that I just use to go to a lot of dance parties so… that’s where I learned my little moves.

How long have you been playing? I’ve played the violin for over 18 years

Which style of dancing do you prefer? I guess all I know is Lindsey Style. Ha ha, I don’t know I only know your basic moves you would use at a dance party but if I could learn any type of dance I would love to learn contemporary.

In your videos it is very obvious that you are extremely flexible and limber. What do you do to be able to bend like that or are you just naturally that way? I’m kinda a naturally flexible person. I don’t stretch at all but the more I do those moves as I practice and perform, the better they’ve gotten.

Most violinists struggle to keep their bow movements controlled with very little or no body movement.How do you keep bow control while jumping? It’s all muscle memory. I just practice the songs really slowly as I put the choreography with it and my bow arm learns what parts of the song it needs to use more pressure and it learns where it can lighten up.

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on Thursday, September 8th, 2011 at 10:51 pm and is filed under Fiddle news and fun.
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